The New Gospel

Such gems [wisdom] of varied beauty are interwoven in the laws, bidding us give wealth to the poor, and it is only on the judgment seat that we are forbidden to show them compassion.  Compassion is for misfortunes, and he who acts wickedly of his own free will is not unfortunate but unjust ... And therefore let no cowering, cringing rogue of a poor man evade his punishment by exciting pity for his penniless condition.

So each seventh day there stand wide open in every city thousands of schools of good sense, temperance, courage, justice and the other virtues in which scholars sit in order quietly with ears alert and with full attention, so much do they thirst for the draught which the teacher’s words supply … But among the vast number of particular truths and principles there studied, there stand out practically high above the others two main heads:  one of duty to God as shewn by piety and holiness, one of duty to men as shewn by humanity and justice ...

It was this final point which particularly exasperated him [Pilate], for he feared that if they [apparently Temple priests] actually sent an embassy [to the emperor Tiberius] they would expose the rest of his conduct as governor by stating in full the briberies, the insults, the robberies, the outrages and wanton injuries, the executions without trial constantly repeated, the ceaseless and supremely grievous cruelty.  So with all his vindictiveness and furious temper, he was in a difficult position.

Again, consider him who in all the virtues transcended human nature … the whole human race exhausted by mutual slaughter was on the verge of utter destruction, had it not been for one man and leader Augustus whom men fitly call the averter of evil.  This is the Caesar who calmed the torrential storms on every side, who healed the pestilences common to Greeks and barbarians … This is he who not only loosed but broke the chains which had shackled and pressed so hard on the habitable world … This is he who reclaimed every state to liberty, who led disorder into order and brought gentle manners and harmony to all unsociable and brutish nations … and Hellenized the outside world in its most important regions, the guardian of peace, who dispensed their dues to each and all, who did not hoard his favors but gave them to be common property, who kept nothing good and excellent hidden throughout his life.  

[I will] tell the story of Moses as I have learned it, both from the sacred books [the Torah] — the wonderful monuments of his wisdom which he has left behind him — and from some of the elders of the nation; for I always interwove what I was told with what I read, and thus believed myself to have a closer knowledge than others of his life’s history.

For it is against all reason that those who claim to dispense justice to others should themselves have offences to answer for.

Such gems [wisdom] of varied beauty are interwoven in the laws, bidding us give wealth to the poor, and it is only on the judgment seat that we are forbidden to show them compassion.  Compassion is for misfortunes, and he who acts wickedly of his own free will is not unfortunate but unjust ... And therefore let no cowering, cringing rogue of a poor man evade his punishment by exciting pity for his penniless condition.

Not a single slave is to be found among them [Essenes], but all are free, exchanging services with each other, and they denounce the owners of slaves, not merely for their injustice in outraging the law of equality, but also for their impiety in annulling the statute of Nature, who mother-like has born and reared all men alike, and created them genuine brothers, not in mere name, but in every reality. 

They [Therapeutae] do not have slaves to wait on them, as they consider that the ownership of servants is entirely against nature.  For nature hath borne all men to be free …